This invention relates generally to automotive and aircraft system batteries, and more particularly to devices for rendering battery safety in emergency situations, accidents and collisions.
Electrical disconnects and battery solenoids are normally located at some distance from the battery. There is an inherent problem with high amperage electrical wiring that can not be deactivated in emergency situations. This configuration is typical of all production aircraft.
The automobile industry has never had provisions or arrangements to manually disconnect batteries from electrical systems associated therewith in time of emergency.
In many accidents, automotive and aviation, that would otherwise have been survivable, the system battery provided a source of ignition to fuels and oil causing fire and unnecessary fatalities.
Another serious problem associated with this type of battery, is accidents during routine servicing, installation, and removal.
Proper procedures can eliminate most of these hazards, but because of exposed high amperage terminals and explosive gas within the battery thousands of accidents involving equipment damage, serious electrical and chemical burns, blindness, and even death have occurred because of inadvertent shorting of the high amperage battery terminals.
This invention when incorporated into all basic production batteries will totally eliminate the hazard associated with maintaining these batteries. Even more importantly, it will eliminate all possibilities of electrically induced fire, loss of equipment and life, in what might otherwise have been a survivable accident.
The basic concept of this invention is the addition of a weighted disconnect link to an internal battery cell jumper. This link bridges the center of two cells of the battery by positioning the weighted link into spring clips of the cell bridge lugs, thus completing the circuit within the battery.
The section of the battery that houses the weighted link will be totally isolated from the electrolyte and explosive gas.
An access door will be provided for contact cleaning and maintenance if it should become necessary. This door would also provide a means to re-engage the link manually after it has been tripped by adequate G force.
The G force just mentioned is the key to the function of the system. When a sudden force is applied to the battery (a force strong enough to cause structural damage to the vehicle in which the battery is installed) the weighted link will displace itself, removing all electrical potential from the battery terminals and attached wiring.
Since the link will tend to disengage the instant an adequate force is applied, and since only a very short distance is required to effectively open the internal circuit, all power will be removed from the terminals and the aircraft wiring before the airframe becomes distorted to the extent necessary to cause major structural damage, shorting of high amperage electrical wiring and possible subsequent fire.
On aircraft installations, the weighted link will be displaced when the required G force is applied from any direction. On automobiles, on the other hand, the displacement of the link would occur only when an adequate force is applied from any horizontal direction. This precludes link displacement because of suspension bottoming on rough roads.
To address the problems and hazards of routine service, a very simple solution has been provided which will totally eliminate the problem of fire and explosion.
The top of the battery will be provided with a hard plastic insulated plunger. This plunger will be equipped with an electrical contact at its base that will complete the batteries internal circuit when depressed. When lifted, it will open the internal circuit, removing all electric potential from the battery terminal, thus providing total safety during servicing installations and electrical cable attachments and disconnections.
This circuit can also be opened providing a safer means of storing the batteries. During vehicle maintenance, this plunger can, when lifted, disconnect all electrical power to the vehicle, thus eliminating the need to disconnect battery terminals and thus simplifying maintenance of equipment.
There is a great problem in transportation today relating to safety and specifically addressing the problem as fire during and after crashes of aircraft, automotive vehicles, trucks, trains, explosives or anything to do with sources of ignition during the transportation process. The problems do exist to a great extent, particularly within mechanical equipment. These problems being that they are complex with several different systems trying to co-exist in one single vehicle.
For instance, fuel systems and electrical systems are inherently dangerous to have together. The electrical systems of vehicles and airplanes provide a source of ignition to fuel which is spilt during crashes or lines which are broken or pumps that start to leak. But more importantly during survivable accidents in vehicles and aircraft, the source of ignition being that of the electrical system of that vehicle. In many, many cases provide the source of ignition which otherwise would not be there and consequently many people lose their lives while they are still in a vehicle, unconscious, or suffering trauma disorientation trying to remove the seat belt when they are hopelessly trapped in the vehicle and burn as a consequence of the problem of ignition to the fuel system that powered the vehicles.
The problem or problems of explosions or fires that set off fuel is considerable. The government in conjunction with test laboratories have developed to some extent and reduced the possibility of intermixing of electrical systems and spilled fuel during accidents.
In the aviation industry, there has been millions of dollars spent to provide special fittings, such that as the fitting is pulled loose during an accident, the maximum amount of fuel would be eight (8) ounces. There has been a large amount of money put into self-sealing fuel bladders and crash fuel bladders and that is about the extent other than location and design consideration as far as proximity of electrical wiring and fuel lines.
The current state of the art of the situation of crash warranty fuel systems and electrical systems needs much attention.
Basically, that is all that has been done by industry. Work has been done on jellied fuel, but it has been found that the expense involved is great and they way that the fuel can be manipulated is not adequate to really solve the problem of post-crash fires in aircraft. In automobiles, very little, if anything, has been done as far as equipment introduced to these vehicles. Design considerations is the major key. A fuel tank will be located in an area that is not as likely to rupture because of a rear-end accidents. Electrical wiring has been run within plastic sheets conduits. This is about all that has been done there.
The emergencies that are being addressed here are impact emergencies, post-crash fires in aircraft and just general collision accidents in automobiles that could be survivable. The impacts are substantial to the point which could cause structural damage in the aircraft or the automobile bad enough to degrade the air-worthiness of an aircraft or the safety of an automobile concerning the fuel in the ignition system, mixing and causing a fire.
So, normally in these types of accidents it would be fine to prepare for, especially in automotive accidents. Probably the best thing is to eliminate totally that ignition source which is the charging system of the vehicle and the battery terminals themselves. In light of this, the system that has been developed will eliminate the problem at its source immediately upon impact before the fuel spills.
This invention is not limited to impact type of emergencies because there is no manual disconnect on the top of the battery which allows for the internal circuit of the battery to be disconnected at any time the mechanic or service operator wishes to do this. When the mechanic or service operator is repairing the car, it is a good practice to remove the battery terminals when the operator is working under the hood of an automobile because those terminals exposed on the top of the battery can cause severe burns, sparks and the battery can blow-up in your face.
With marine vessels, of course, the crash worthiness of the system would function basically the same as the automotive or the aviation. The G-disconnect link within the battery could be tailored to control the system. In marine vehicles, there are fumes that tend to accumulate in the holds of these vessels and when there is fuel stored and fumes, it is very important to keep any ignition source away from those vapors. With the ICED battery and its design whenever maintenance is being done on that vehicle, this battery that is disclosed here, has a manual disconnect plunger located on the top so that it could be depressed within and the contact would be broken within the battery, thus eliminating any possibility from that point throughout the maintenance process of having an electrical arc which could ignite fumes or fuels during maintenance.
Aircraft, automotive and marine can all utilize the invention. In certain situations where vehicles within the industrial complexes, storerooms have an electrical system on them installed in those vehicles. If an accident were to happen, it would eliminate the possibility of ignition sources because of the degraded electrical systems and thus prevent what could be maybe a catastrophic accident. With respect to nuclear power, those vehicles which operate close to nuclear power stations. Anywhere that current lead-acid batteries are being used or any battery for that matter, that is used in vehicles or in industrial equipment, that is involved in motion, this battery could be applied to that equipment in making it that much safer. That much safer actually equates to total safety when the problems are associated with electrical sparks after an accident. Nickel batteries are used in large quantity other than lead-acid batteries.
The present invention can apply to any battery ignition system, even up through the fuel cell type batteries. The lead-acid battery is the most commonly used battery system which is currently being used in the automotive and general aviation industries. Then, nickel cadmium batteries which are used in some of the larger jet aircraft or business jet aircraft, helicopter applications, but as far as the design, the invention can be applied to any of those types of systems for batteries.
The invention of the present battery system is applied to transportation or industry, any possibility of a fire resulting from that vehicle causing a source of ignition to the fuel. A fire resulting from an explosion or vice versa depending how large the quantity of fuel and the type of fuel. But by eliminating this one ignition source effectively, then certainly lives will be saved, together with equipment and money.
The invention is extremely simple in operation, very economical, very easy to manufacture, with very little modification actually required to the standard battery as it exists today. So, in its simplicity, it would also be very low cost. It could have a total application. It would replace those batteries which are in production as far as dimension and size, one-to-one. If someone wanted to put this system in their automobile today, all he would need to do is make a switch. When this battery is installed, there is no other modifications required to that vehicle to benefit from the system.
The maintenance on this battery would be identical to maintenance on any other currently available battery. In addition, there might be some maintenance required as far as contact cleaning and there of course, is access to this modified area of the battery which would give you access to reset the battery after it was triggered to open and to clean contacts or make small adjustments. But, with the application of a patented compound to the contact area, which house the circuit disc connector, maintenance should be relatively not needed for the most part.
The manual disconnect of the invention on the top of the battery would allow for an immediate means of disconnecting electric circuit to the automobile. If, for instance, by turning the key off in a car when it is noticed that smoke is coming out from under the hood, that does not necessary shut all the parts.
It would be, of course, very easy to add equipment to a vehicle to make that disconnecting by means of an inside control to be able to completely disconnect this battery from inside of a vehicle also. Of course, there would be equipment needed for that, but there again that could come later when the battery is put into service, then those supporting pieces of equipment may of course be added, so you would have a manual means of disconnecting the battery from inside the vehicle.
The purpose of this invention is to provide, of course, safety. This battery when put in place, enhances the safety of all vehicles which it can be installed in. But, the main advantages of the invention are simplicity, cost effectiveness--it will be easy to manufacture, the market already exists in industry. No market has to be established for this piece of equipment. It deals with safety and important for safety in transportation in this country.
It is an object of this invention to provide a system and/or systems for manually disconnecting batteries from electrical systems associated therewith in time of emergency, such as collisions and accidents.
Another object of this invention is to provide a system which will disconnect all electrical power of an automotive vehicle and/or aircraft engine in time of emergency, thus eliminating the need to disconnect battery terminals and thus simplifying maintenance of equipment.
Another object of this invention is to provide a safety system for engines of various type, including automotive, aircraft, and marine which will eliminate and/or minimize fire and/or explosives in such apparatus.
Another object of this invention is to provide various safety systems to use with batteries of all types in connection with multiple type engines to minimize explosions and fires, thus saving thousands of lives.